Involvement of Caspase-Dependent and Independent Pathway in Apoptotic Action of Extrinsic β-Hydroxybutyrate in Liver Tissue of Mice

Β-hydroxybutyric acid (β-hb) is generated by degradation of fatty acids in the liver. β-hb level in serum increases significantly in a variety of metabolic disorder diseases, such as hyperketonemia and diabetic ketoacidosis, in which hepatocyte apoptosis have an important role. to investigate the effect of exogenous β-hb on the liver, mice were injected intraperitoneally with β-hb (7.5 mmol/kg) one time, three times and five times at 24 h intervals, respectively. compared to the distilled water injection group, β-hb level in liver tissue increased significantly, while the triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesferol (hdl), low density lipoprotein cholestorol (ldl), alkaline phosphatase (alp) in serum have not changed in the three β-hb injection groups. β-hb promoted the activation of caspase-12, caspase- 9, caspase-3 and endog, up-regulated bax and down-regulated of bcl-2.